Jed Yoong

On Astro Awani. Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan dismissed rumours of violence and riots sent by SMS.

“SMS itu bohong (The SMS messages are false). Everything is safe (selamat) dan under control (terkawal),” he told the TV station in a telephone interview at about 12.20am.

He also urged citizens to keep the peace as the people has voted for whoever has won (pihak masyarakat telah membuang undi untuk siapa yang menang).

I must say that the BN appears more rational these days. I remember under Dr M how Pairin was locked out of parliament and not sworn in immediately. But then again, Dr M sacked Salleh Abbas probably to win the UMNO elections in the 1980s….

Is the BN so gutless? If they are SOOOOOOOOO invincible, why don’t they just let the Opposition hold ceramahs (talks/rallies), demonstrate on the streets, be featured in the media especially on TV, or give flowers to the PM?

Also, PM said he had “forgotten” about Anwar. In this video, it appeared otherwise. Maybe the PM has forgotten but his underlings are watching Anwar very tightly.

Have to give it to Anwar. All these years fighting. He is a fighter. Personality traits like that inspire me, especially when our PM seems to be amnesic, lacking in political will and a liar.

…follows through with the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC). If Pak Lah does nothing at all but this ONE thing, I will vote for him in the upcoming GE. Too late, the watered-down Special Complaints Commission Bill is being debated in parliament.

This is not to say that I am voting Opposition. My MP is Shahrizat. I like her. And the Opposition fails to inspire me. I have actually moved from Pantai Hill to Taman Desa, Old Klang Road — DAP MP Teresa Kok’s constituency. But I like Shahrizat better. So I am not changing my address. Yes, personality goes a long way. As much I complain about BN, when you look at the Opposition, the only option may be to migrate, my top priority now.

Don’t forget Anwar promises to replace the NEP with a new income-based poverty eradication program. He has said nothing about abolishing the bumiputera label. I am unconvinced that he will refrain from replacing the administration with his cronies. After all, politicians are at the mercies of their backers. And Anwar seems chummy with Saudi Arabia. Unless that’s how he is getting funding from the US, it freaks me out. But he is a nice guy and definitely more intelligent and eloquent than Pak Lah. Then again, most of the world’s most murderous tyrants, like Hitler, were also known for their charisma and oratorical skills.

I may not vote at all and watch TV. Even better, hopefully my editors will send me on a travel assignment to some island like Capri in Italy.

In God, we trust.

These similarities, in words and practices, in Islam, Christianity and Judaism, are expected because these religions originated from the same area and the people share many cultural, sociological and anthropological traits.

Unlike other religions, these three religions, are sometimes referred to as “Abrahamic faiths”, believe in one God but have different concepts of the Creator.

There is something positive out of this controversy – it’s good to learn and appreciate each other’s religions. As individuals, we are all constantly seeking out God in our personal journey of faith. Let us do so with our eyes, our minds and our hearts open.

Similarities in the faiths not unusual by Wong Chun Wai in The Sunday Star today

JED YOONG: Well said. The above sums up what I want to say about the issue. Although I didn’t want to say anything initially till RPK lumped the three concepts of God into one. Shalom/Salam.

Some rakyat at the candlelight vigil on the eve of International Human Rights Day, Dec 9.

Malaysiakini reported today:

Dataran Merdeka off limits tomorrow
Fauwaz Abdul Aziz and Khairil Zhafri | Dec 21, 07 6:49pm

The police will close off public access to Dataran Merdeka beginning tomorrow morning in a bid to foil an illegal assembly scheduled to take place at the historic site tomorrow night.

Dang Wangi district police chief ACP Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman told reporters today that road blocks would also be erected as “precautionary measures”.

He also warned the public to steer clear from the area, because the organisers of the planned gathering did not obtain a police permit to do so.

“We will not hesitate to take harsh action against those who are stubborn (and attend the gathering),” said Zulkarnain according to Bernama.

The gathering, organised by Abolish the ISA Movement (GMI), is a candlelight vigil to protest against all detention without trial through the use of the Internal Security Act (ISA).

Civil society groups, including the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), were expected to take part in the silent vigil.

Continue reading @ Malaysiakini

Oh yeah, I was at the candlelight vigil on the eve of International Human Rights Day, Dec 9.

This was just after 500 policemen “overpowered” 100 peaceful walkers, not even marchers man, outside Sogo Mall on Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaysiakini report here, Jeff Ooi’s post here). Bar Council Human Rights Committee chair Edmund Bon was also arrested in the Bar Council building for allegedly stopping Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) officers from taking down banners inside the premises (Malaysiakini report here).

I was rather numb from the Hindraf Batu Caves incident. Then I saw more photos on Rocky’s Bru of the arrests of peaceful lawyers walking to celebrate Human Rights Day.

It seemed I would have to appear at some vigil to protest against the increased police intimidation. This was before the ISA detention of the Hindraf 5. But the threat was hanging about in the damp night air.

I parked at some alley near Central Market and dropped by to see Hishamuddin Rais at his Bau Bau Cafe. He was dressed in black, his shoulder length curly hair untied from his usual ponytail. He was also particularly animated and before I could ask him if he would be dropping by the vigil, he asked me: “Are you going?” I nodded. He said he would be going too along with his “mates in black”. What a coincidence. I was wearing all black too. Probably to reflect the general mood. He didn’t turn up in the end.

The drizzle had not stopped like the Government’s harsh tactics, it was slowly dampening the Opposition’s spirits. But not so this time, there was a fire that was absent from previous “rebellions”. There was anger, simmering, slowly coming to a boil, then simmering again, only to come to another boil. The drizzle was probably more like the general despair felt by ordinary Malaysians. OK, ordinary urbanites. But not really too because Hindraf supporters came from all over the country; so did the PAS supporters at the BERSIH rally on November 10.

As I approached Dataran Merdeka (Freedom Square), I was surprised by the number of police. All lingering around, looking fairly bored with having to look stupid under orders from their kiasu heads. But there was only one police patrol car. No Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) trucks. Just police guarding the Square near our world’s tallest flagpole. I smiled at them and they smiled back, relaxed now. Some were young, maybe just twenty and having to do the Government’s dirty work.

I spotted Johnson of Anwar Ibrahim’s People’s Justice Party (PKR) first. Tall, lanky, fair and cute. Kinda hard to miss. He was chatting on his mobile phone. He wore a long-sleeved white shirt and black trousers with a black jacket slung over a shoulder, looking like he was at a bar about to pick up some girls than at a political event. We exchanged small talk.

A member of the media.

At about 9.15pm, the media and police outnumbered the protestors. Eventually more came, about 100; mostly young, they looked like students. Dressed in t-shirts, combats, jeans with scruffy hair. It just appeared so absurd that this group could turn rowdy and I thought the police were catching on too. If they arrested these kiddos, Malaysia would definitely have another first.

The usual suspects turned up minus Elizabeth Wong, like DAP Ipoh Barat MP Kula Segaran (far left in first photo below), PAS Treasurer Hatta Ramli (centre in last photo below), SUARAM executive director Yap Swee Seng and veteran journalist Baradan Kuppusamy.

The media snapped photos, and interviewed some politicians and actvists.

Then the crowd dispersed.

Pretty uneventful. A small crowd. But a necessary show of solidarity.

There will be another vigil tomorrow night. From the SUARAM website:

A Solidarity vigil will be held this coming Saturday night, in support of ISA detainees who are unable to exercise their fundamental rights in Malaysia, and to express our opposition towards the Governments crackdown on protestors.

The vigil organized by Abolish ISA Movement (Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA, GMI)

Date: Saturday 22nd December 2007
Time: 8 p.m.
Venue: Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur

Please come to show your solidarity. Please bring candles, candle-holders and banners.

For further information, please contact Secretariat GMI, Nalini at 03-77843525/ 019 3758912.

Thanks for your concern and support.

I am not sure if it’s still on but I will be there, if it is.

NOW is the time to ACT. Before I hop off to another land? Ha ha ha….Well, do what I can.

Thanks Kit for the plug on my post on the Public Consultation last night.

From Malaysiakini today:

BREAKING NEWS

SCC bill debate postponed
Dec 18, 07 3:44pm

The debate on the controversial Special Complaints Commission (SCC) Bill has been postponed until next year to grant MPs and NGOs more time to study the bill.

According to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz, the cabinet unanimously decided on the matter during a meeting this morning.

“We allow the postponement for more time to study the bill. The government is listening. No point rushing through the bill,” he said.

The decision was conveyed to Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, who was at a press conference in Parliament with several non-governmental organisation representatives requesting a withdrawal of the SCC bill.

Continue reading at Malaysiakini.

VIDEO from parliament this morning. Nazri spoke, like a gentlemen, I must say.

OK. Am tired. Wanna sleep.

The hall was packed this evening, surprisingly, and the attendees reached a unanimous decision to defer the debate on  the Special Complaints Bill tomorrow.

Choice quotes

Lim Kit Siang said the SCC Bill was the “final test of the leadership of Pak Lah”. He expressed his disappointment that the Prime Minister had “no political courage to implement it (IPCMC)”.

Tunku Aziz, who was a member of the Royal Commission (RC) on the Police, said the original recommendations of the RC has been “completely turned upside down”. He was rather melodramatic when he added: “We can say goodbye to the aspirations and hopes of a police force that money cannot buy.”

Another member of the RC, Param Cumaraswamy, said: “It’s a slap in the face of the Royal Commission,” adding that the SCC “deviates very substantially from what has been recommended.” He also stressed that the Government has a “duty to explaing why it can’t implement the Royal Commission’s recommendations.”

Bar Council Human Rights Council chair Edmund Bon called the SCC a “postbox” and “special referral commission” as it will not have powers to “investigate, prosecute and punish independently”.

———–

SUARAM and some NGOs will be at Parliament tomorrow afternoon to submit a protest note or something.

—————

Malaysiakini reported on Saturday:

Kit Siang: It’s a fake IPCMC!
Andrew Ong | Dec 15, 07 4:11pm

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang today slammed the government for tabling a watered-down version of the much-anticipated Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

Lim said that the Special Complaints Commission (SCC) bill, which was tabled for first reading in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday, was in essence a “fraudulent” version of the IPCMC.

He explained that the SCC bill had in its explanatory statement said that the bill was a result of the IPCMC proposals made by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police in 2005.

“Most unfortunately, the SCC is a completely different animal from one conceived and recommended by the royal commission.

“In fact, it makes a total mockery of the IPCMC proposal as to warrant the SCC bill to be billed as a fraudulent IPCMC,” he said a press conference today.

Continue reading @ Malaysiakini.

NST was fairly balanced. :)What’s UMNO up to these days? Cannot stand Pak Lah already too?

Today’s editorial:

HONG Kong must have played heavily on the minds of the 2005 royal commission as it completed its year-long inquiry into improving the police. A real-life, made-for-TV tale of utter transformation, the reform of the former British colony’s law enforcement in the mid-1970s from one of the most corrupt to one of the most efficient in the world would have defined the possibilities for its almost equally shabby counterpart in this country.
Key to the cleaning up operation was the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Together with firm management and leadership, higher pay and various amnesties, it succeeded in destroying a culture of crime that had been grist to the Hong Kong movie industry for a generation. No wonder then that top of the royal commission’s recommendations, along with a better deal for all policemen, was an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission to replicate the famously graft-busting ICAC.

(more…)

BY GOSH! I may be clairvoyant! Or is the BN simply too predictable?

The Star’s editorial today:

THE Special Complaints Commission Bill 2007 was tabled for first reading on Thursday. Originating in the proposed Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill, this Bill covers all enforcement agencies other than the Anti- Corruption Agency.

The idea of establishing an IPCMC, as recommended by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police, remains an excellent one. While the earlier proposal covered only the police force, this one casts a wider net.

(more…)

I guess I should say something about this latest “scam” of an IPCMC (Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission) — our Special Complaints Commission (SCC). (Malaysiakini report here)

Once upon a time, when Pak Lah just became PM, he promised to reform the police force and the IPCMC was one of his better ideas.

It all kinda went bust when the police literally “threatened” him, according to a commentary by the Star’s Acting Group Editor-in-Chief Wong Chun Wai last May.

He wrote:

Yesterday, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Bakri Omar found himself in an embarrassing situation. A critical report, meant for internal circulation, was posted on the police website.

The 12-page report contained strong, even intimidating, proposals by the police against the setting up of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

The document stated that the setting up of the IPCMC was “unconstitutional, prejudicial to national security and public order, victimised the people, and could cause a state of anarchy which would undermine the ruling coalition’s power”.

The report, which has been circulated among members of the police force, said the IPCMC would “undermine the IGP’s administrative and enforcement power” but what has become a controversy now is the proposals by Senior Police Officers Gazetted Association if the body was formed.

They included voting for the Opposition in the next general election, asking the Opposition to speak up for their causes in Parliament, working to rule, demanding that the top police brass quit, allowing crime rates to go up and mass resignations of investigating officers.

The association also expressed its disappointment that the Home Ministry had remained silent on the issue, and questioned why the police force had to be singled out for reforms.

These emotional demands, while not out in the open, are a reflection of the simmering unhappiness in the rank and file of the police force since the proposed setting up of the IPCMC.

In a private meeting with the Prime Minister, they had expressed their frustrations. On March 25, in his Police Day message that was read out at all police contingents, except at the event at the Police Training Centre where Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Bakri were present, the IGP had rejected the setting up of the IPCMC.

He said the police force and police associations rejected 24 of the proposals of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police, including the setting up of the IPCMC.

But the posting of the internal report on the website, which the police have found to be a mistake, has been untimely. It will not help the image of the police. It is even more unfortunate for Bakri, who is expected to retire in three months.

But before that in May 2005, he wrote:

IT’S unprecedented. Our men in blue, the good guys who as crime busters keep our streets and our lives safe, have become the subject of an investigation in a 500-page report.

The Royal Commission to Enhance The Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police has been forthright.

It has done a truly professional job, pulling no punches and making over 100 recommendations after 15 months of deliberations.

It has even tackled minor details, like suggesting that the police should change its motto of Mesra, Cepat dan Betul (Friendly, Fast and Correct) to Mesra, Cekap dan Beramanah (Friendly, Efficient and Trustworthy).

It’s simple - Malaysians cannot be expected to trust the police unless it is efficient and corruption-free. That is the general concern of Malaysians, cutting across all races and religions.

The setting up of the panel was part of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s pledge to improve delivery of services, reduce corruption and enhance accountability in government.

BUT NOW, Pak Lah is simply at other people’s mercies, whether the police to clampdown on peaceful protestors on the streets, UMNO to keep him as its president, the army to hold back from over-throwing him and more.

So, we now have this AMAZING SCC Bill. This Bill is very “special” because it kinda just appeared from nowhere and drafted by our very “credible” Attorney-General’s Chambers.

Veteran Opposition leader and DAP icon Lim Kit Siang sounds kinda “cheesed off” in his blog and wrote:

I am convening an emergency public consultation in Kuala Lumpur on Monday night on the stand that Members of Parliament should take on the fraudulent Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Bill (IPCMC) which will be debated in Parliament on Tuesday or Wednesday – the last day of the 46-day sitting of the current parliamentary meeting.

I say: WOW! Pak Lah really sux! Also, I shall try to make it on Monday. It’s all very 1984….

I have a feeling that the oracle will be commending the Special Complaints Commission Bill. What does your crystal ball say?

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan met up with the Star’s acting Group Editor-in-Chief Datuk Wong Chun Wai on this week’s Cafe Latte Chat to talk about crime and street protests. Also on the panel were Malaysian Bar Council chairman S. Ambiga, Ayer Hitam MP and MCA Youth secretary-general Dr Wee Ka Siong and the Star’s crime desk chief Lourdes Charles. Full article here.

Strangely, Musa did not discuss at length the Batu Caves incident.

For your information, he was also the Investigation Officer who built the police case to prosecute Anwar Ibrahim.

Musa says

POLICE NEUTRALITY

We are neutral, we’re not close to any particular parties. We do not care about colour, creed or religion. We do not have such emotions. I’ve told my officers we are professionals, we should not have any such emotions when protecting the country and its citizens.

[...]

It boils down to the same thing. All gatherings need a permit.

HINDRAF

During the Hindraf demonstration, there were fiery speeches. Being in a multi-racial country, one cannot just say anything one likes because that would hurt feelings. A number of speeches were made under the pretext of a Deepavali gathering. They even went to the point where they claimed there was ethnic cleansing of Indians in the country. It is very bad for a multi-racial country.

[...]

(more…)

RELA is notorious for its high-handedness and alleged abused of power. Now as the RELA Bill seeks to expand this volunteer corp’s powers, Malaysia may be less of a democracy and more of a police state.

I read with dread a news article in Malaysiakini today: Rela Bill will unleash a monster. My immediate re-action was the people’s volunteer corps is already a Hydra that will simply sprout more fang-infested heads.

(more…)

Here is the photo again. More at Jeff Ooi’s.